Anti-vaccine toll, U.S.

Polio vaccine: why we could—and should—build a better one

Briefly, polio is an RNA virus, thus has an error-prone RNA-RNA polymerase, thus acts like a quasispecies like HIV-1. Now, a live attenuated polio vaccine is the ‘best’ because you activate lots of branches of your immune system, which ‘remember’ the polio virus for a really long time. But because of polio’s potential genetic diversity, the attenuated vaccine variant can revert back to the wild-type variant, which is ‘more fit’.

This doesn’t matter to you, because you’ve been vaccinated. But if you shed wild-type virus…

Well, you could make someone else sick. ERV then describes the new polio viruses that have been created and that would make safer and more reliable vaccines:

Vignuzzi et al found they could generate polio viruses that:

Had a higher-fidelity RNA-RNA polymerase, cutting mutation rates by half or more

Were almost equally ‘fit’ to wild-type virus, reducing selective pressure to revert

Did not infect the brain/central nervous system

Were still susceptible to anti-polio antivirals

Provided better protective immunity to wild-type polio than even the current ‘live’ polio vaccine

All of these are important, especially in countries where vaccination is spotty and supplies of clean water are less reliable. People die while we sit by and say, “I’m all right, Jack.”

The Out Campaign

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